


Emma Hill

by Woild_is_yer_erster



Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: F/M, I will go down with this au, M/M, Race has a twin, Race is an "investigator", Twin AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-17 14:14:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18966877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Woild_is_yer_erster/pseuds/Woild_is_yer_erster
Summary: What will happen when Race see someone from his past? Someone that he never thought he'd see again.





	Emma Hill

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: A and B are twins, separated when they were young. They remember each other but don't know what happened to the other. A changed their name so no one from their past could find them. B is contracted to steal something from A, who is rich. A finds B in the act, they recognize each other.

 

Anthony and Annabelle Higgins, twins. At the age of ten, they were separated by child services.  Their mother had died when they were eight, leaving them with their abusive father. When their mother was alive, she taught them all things musical and that they should love music. After they were separated, they were put into foster families. 

Annabelle was fortunate. Her foster parents were rich, no kids, and loved her. She ended up getting adopted by her foster parents. She got a good education, going to high school, going to college, got a degree in business, started her own business. The business was successful, making her, just like her foster parents, rich. After she turned eighteen, she legally changed her name so no one from her past could find her, mainly her father who had only gotten 15 years in jail for child abuse. 

Anthony was not as fortunate. His foster parents hated him. The only reason that they were foster parents was so they could get the money from the state. Their abuse was so much worse than his father's. So, one day, Anthony was sick of it and ran away. While on the streets, stopped by the Sheepshead races every day to watch the races. There he as approached by a man in a flat cap and dirty clothes. It looked as though he hadn't had a bath in months. He introduced himself as a Fox, He was the leader of the Manhattan Newsies. Anthony was offered to become a Newsies himself. 

Anthony met his real family that day. He earned the nickname Racetrack, or Race for short. He didn't get a good education, he could read and write, but he didn't go to high school or college. He was hired by an organization that was started by an ex-Newsie that had been adopted by rich parents who died leaving their adopted son the money. The organization, Newsboy Agency House (or NAH for short) was basically a PI organization, you hired them to dig up things, most people hired them to steal things from others. 

Anthony and Annabelle haven't seen each other since that day, the day they were ripped apart. 

\-----

**15 years later (they are now 24 about to turn 25)**

NAH had been hired by an influential client claiming that his competition had wrongfully taken something from him and he wanted it back. She had supposedly stolen some jewelry, a necklace, bracelet, and a ring, all very valuable and irreplaceable. The target, Emma Hill.

"She's having a 25th birthday party tonight," Jack Kelly, the leader of NAH, explained to the boys that sat in front of him. "Race, I'm assigning you this job, it should be easy in and out the situation. The jewelry is in her bedroom in this room." Jack said pointing to the room on the blueprint laid in front of them. "You'll enter through the window and exit through the front door if you don't get caught. JoJo, you will be Race's eyes are ears, tell him if anyone is entering the room or if anything is blocking his exit. Is everyone clear?" The boys nodded their heads. "Good. Suit up."

Race put on his suit and earpiece. He made his way to the house, it was two-story, modest, but you could tell that the person that lived there was pretty rich. The car line to get in was long, classical music could be heard from the street and bright lights flashed. There was a fence lining the grounds. Race was able to scale it easily, making his way to the window Jack had indicated, moving the trampoline that was close by under the window for an easy escape in case he was caught. He made his way up to the window by suction cups. Race unlocked the window and walked in spotting the jewelry box almost immediately. Race pulled out his phone for the photos of the jewels he needed. Looking through the hooks of necklace eventually finding it. He looked through the box of rings, eventually finding the ring. When he started looking for the bracelet, JoJo's voice rang through his head. 

"Race, someone coming, hide." 

Race raced to one of the windows, unfortunately, it wasn't his escape route, no, his escape route was two windows down from where he was. Race thought that he got all the jewels, but he looked, he had forgotten the bracelet. 

"Crap, I forgot the bracelet." Race mumbled.

"Race, you have to get it!" 

"Yeah, yeah, I'll just wait till they leave the room."

The person walked into the room humming and walked to her jewelry stand. Race peaked through from behind the curtain and looked at her. She was wearing a light blue off the shoulder 50's style tea-length ball gown with a dark blue sash around her waist, she was also wearing blue suede heels. A string of pearls was around her neck. Her hair was up in a messy top bun, which looked flawless, weaved through the bun was white flowers that looked like flowers that sat outside of his childhood home before his mother died.  

Soon the humming turned into singing. The song was familiar, but Race couldn't put his finger on why it sounded so familiar. The voice also sounded familiar. Why did this person seem so familiar? He hardly had any friends that we girls, except for the ones that worked at the agency with him. The singing sounded like a good memory. Then Race's breath caught in his throat and his heart stopped. 

Race tensed as his mind filled with memories of his mother, his sister, and him in their parlor singing, singing the song that the girl was singing right now.  

"Annabelle Higgins," Race accidentally said out loud, not being quiet. The singing stopped. Then JoJo's voice filled his ear.

"What'd you say, Race?" 

"Who's there? I have a gun, and I'm not afraid to use it. Come out! NOW!" The girl shouted. 

"Shit. I have to get out of this house." Race said trying to thicken his New York accent so Annabelle couldn't tell that it was Race. 

"But, you haven't gotten the bracelet yet. You have to stay." JoJo tried reasoning. 

"No, I can't. I've been caught, JoJo."

Race looked over, the window was still open. He could make a run for it, risking the chance that he could get shot. Or he could face Annabelle, reason with her. He decided against it and ran for the window, jumping to the trampoline that he had positioned underneath the window for an easy escape if he was caught. He heard a gunshot right as he made it to the window. He bounced on the trampoline, hoping the fall from the trampoline wouldn't hurt very much. Spoiler alert, it did. 

Race landed on the grass with a groan. But heard shouting, he got up, bearing through the pain from the fall. He heard footsteps as he ran, a few gunshots too. He didn't stop running until he got to his car a few blocks away. He drove back to headquarters where he met a very furious Jack. 

"What the Hell was that back there?" Jack yelled at him.

"I can't do the Emma Hill case. I can't." Race said pushing past him. 

"And why the hell not?!" Jack yelled back at him. 

"I know Emma," Race screamed back  "At least I did." Race muttered. 

"I don't want to hear it, okay? So, no buts, no nothing. You WILL do this case, you hear me?!" Jack screamed back.

"FINE!"

"You're going back, tomorrow night, 8 PM, be ready," Jack said, trying to calm down.

Race went back to his apartment where his husband was waiting for him. 

"I know I'm not supposed to ask about work, but Kelly called me, told me you had a hard time tonight. Want to talk about it?" His husband, Spot asked him. 

"Not really. But I probably should." Race took a breath. "You know how I told you about my family?"

"Yeah, the one that abused you so you ran away. That's how you became a Newsie."

"Not that one. My actual family. My mom died, my dad was arrested for child abuse, and my sister, torn away from me from child services." Race explained. "I hadn't seen my sister in fifteen years."

"Hadn't?" Spot questioned.

"Yeah, apparently she changed her name to Emma Hill, became really successful and completely forgot about me," Race sighed. 

"She probably hasn't forgotten about you, she just thought..."

"Thought that I didn't exist? I agree."

"That's not what I was going to say," Spot said. "Here."

Spot handed Race a wrapped box.

"What is this for?" Race asked.

"Did you really forget your own birthday?" Spot said with a laugh. "Now that's a first. Especially since I wished you a happy birthday this morning before you left for work."

"Oh, right. I guess that I just got so caught up in what happened that I forgot. Thanks, Babe," Race said giving Spot a kiss on the check. 

"I also have cake in the kitchen."

\-----

It was eight, Race was making his way back to the Hill house, dreading what was ahead. Race had to scale the house again

Race unlocked the window again and slipped in, he made his way to the jewelry box, found the bracelet, but on his way back to the window to leave, he came face to face with his past. 

"May I ask why you are in my bedroom at 8 o'clock at night?" 

"Shit," Race sighed. "Caught... again."

Race's stare moved from Annabelle to the window, which was now closed. 

"Shit," Race breathed again. "Why'd this have to happen to me?"

With that, a fist came around and hit Race square in his jaw, knocking him out.

As Race started to gain consciousness, his vision was blurred but he was able to make out a female figure leaning up against the wall in front of him. "Wow, you can still punch pretty hard," Race said as he stretchered his jaw as he vision started to clear up. Race looked "Emma" up and down taking in the things that had changed and the things that hadn't changed. She was tall, as expected, she had more of a feminine figure, she had more weight to her, but not in a bad way, the last time Race had seen "Emma" she was so skinny that you could see her ribs. Her face was still covered in freckles, but they were harder to see like she was trying to cover them. Her hair was still blond, like his. Her blue eyes were piercing into Race's soul, trying to figure who had broken into her house. Thank god Race had thought to wear colored contacts.

"Why'd you have to break into my house... for the second night in a row?"

"I'm just doing my job, okay? I have nothing against you," Race said. "But, actually, I do." Race breathed, but this time, keeping his voice low so "Emma" wouldn't be able to hear him.

"Your job is to steal things? And how are you so good at it?"

"Well, if you had the childhood I had, you learned to be agile and sneaky to survive," Race said moaning in pain. He started looking around at the room he was in. It looked like he was still in her bedroom. "But, I guess, you didn't have a childhood like me, did you?"

"Who's to say I didn't have a childhood like you? You don't even know me. You don't know who I am." 

"Oh, I know who you are. You're Annabelle Higgins. Your mother died when you were eight, father was arrested when you were ten for child abuse, and your brother, your twin brother was separated from you by child services the day your dad was arrested. Your foster parents, Brian and Ashley Hill, were rich, and they ended up falling in love with you. Ended up adopting you, too. You got a good education. After graduating high school, you went to NYU getting a degree in business. When you were still in college, started Hill industries, it grew, now you're rich. Not married, no kids."  Then Race said quietly. "I'm surprised you didn't go into the music industry, you always talked about how that was your dream when you were younger," 

"Who are you?" Annabelle said, raising the gun so that it was pointed at Race again. 

"Oh, I'm not done. Now your brother, Anthony," Race winced at the name. "He wasn't as fortunate as you. His foster parents weren't like your's, not even close. They hated me, I mean Anthony, the only reason they were fostering him was so they could get money from the state. One day, Anthony was sick of it, so he ran away. He lived on the streets the rest of his teenage years. He finally got a good enough job where he could afford an apartment. Now he's married, no kids, but they are planning on adopting soon."

"How do you know so much about me and my family?"

"I've done my research," Race said slyly

"Who are you?" 

"Racetrack, Race for short. I would it's nice to meet you, but I've already had the privilege. And I'm tied to a chair, so..."

"What kinda person names their kid Racetrack?"

"Why do think it's my real name?"

"Then what's your real name?"

"Now that just ruins the fun," Race said with a sly smile. By then, he was able to get arms free from the behind him. 

"Then, what's your last name?" 

"That ruins the fun even more. Come on Belle, you used to love having fun. Where'd the  Annabelle that I knew go?" 

"If you told me the Annabelle you're talking about, I could tell you," Annabelle said trying to get answers out of Race. 

"Wow, you really don't remember me, do you?" Race said, his face morphing into hurt and disappointment. 

"Am I supposed to?" Annabelle asked lowering the gun.

"I guess not. I guess I just don't matter to you as much as I thought I did," Race checked his watch. "Well, I should be going, don't want my husband to worry." Race ran to the window, opening the window as fast as he could, jumping down onto the grass. The gunshots were delayed today, unlike yesterday. Race must have really shocked Annabelle. 

\-----

Race made it back to headquarters with the jewels in his pocket. Feeling upset and hurt, he walked into Jack's office and put the jewels on the desk.

"Why did you turn off your mic?" Jack asked without looking up.

"I had some personal business to take care of."

"You should never turn off your mic, no matter how personal," Jack said finally looking up from the papers on his desk. 

"Nobody has any business knowing what I was talking about. As I said, it was personal, I don't want to talk about it," Race walked out of Jack's office and back to his apartment, where, as usual, Spot was waiting up for him.

"Babe, it's almost one, why are you still up?" Race said walking over to Spot, who was sitting on the couch watching TV. 

"I always wait up for you. Though, you're out later than usual," Spot looked up at him, tired written on his face. "What happened?"

"I'll tell you in the morning, but right now, we both need sleep." Race said, picking Spot up off the couch and taking him to bed. 

\-----

Annabelle wanted to know who this Racetrack really was and why he looked so familiar.  The next morning she went to the address that was on the card that the guy dropped. She walked into the building and saw a desk with a lady sitting behind it. 

"Hi, I need to find someone," Emma said getting the lady behind the desk's attention.

"Oh," The lady said startled. "Okay, just fill this out and give it back to me when you're done and I'll get you with one of our investigators."

Emma looked at the form, it was basic information, her name, what her business was, stuff like that. She heard the door open but she didn't look up. She did look up when the door opened almost immediately after it closed the first time. She saw a familiar figure speedily walking away.

Emma looked back at the form filling out the last part and taking it to the lady. The lady looked at the name on the form and her eyes went wide. But she quickly shook it off, she picked up the phone and started talking to a person named Jack. Emma sat down and waited.

Her wait wasn't very long. Almost two minutes after Emma sat down, she was called to an office. Emma entered the office and was told to sit. The man was looking at the form that Emma had just filled out. 

"I have to say, I'm surprised. I wasn't expecting you, of all people to show up here." The man said. "Jack Kelly." He said holding out his hand for her to shake.

"I have to ask, how did you hear of us?" 

"I found a business card in my house last night."

"And, why was this business card in your house?"

Emma wasn't liking the way questions were going. "Cause of the man that I found in my house last night."

Jack looked confused at first, but then his face morphed into understanding, then he rolled his eyes, and then he got a look that made him look as though he was about to explode. "One moment." He said, threw open the door, walked to another door, threw that open, slammed the door behind him and started screaming. Emma could make out a word or two every now and then; Race, caught, trouble, office, jewels, and a faint I don't care that came from the person that he was shouting at, then lastly, Well, you should.

The door threw open, slammed shut, Emma heard footsteps coming her way, then the door shut behind her. "I'm sorry, I had to deal with one of my... investigators," Jack said, trying to calm down. "Now, who is it you would like to find?"

Emma was now rethinking this entire thing, what if he was mad that she'd never come looking for him earlier. What if he didn't want her back in his life. What if-. Her thoughts were interrupted by Jack.

"Miss? Are you okay?" Jack asked. "You look very familiar, have we met?" 

"Not to my knowledge," Emma said.

"I'm sorry," Jack said shaking his head. "I just swear I've seen you before."

"It's okay, I get that a lot," Emma said smiling. 

"Right, back to it. What can I do for you?" 

"Oh, yes," Emma said, straightening herself. "I would like to find somebody."

"Yes?" Jack said taking a sip from his coffee.

"I would like to find Anthony Higgins."

Jack started choking on his coffee. "I'm sorry, who?" 

"Anthony Higgins," Emma said with a bit of confusion 

Jack straightening his back and looked at her. "If I may ask, why?" 

"You're agent last night made me start thinking about my past, and... I want to see Anthony."

"Okay," Jack said standing up. "Just give me a minute."

Jack turned around to the cabinets behind him mumbling about something Emma couldn't hear. Jack refiled through the drawer for a minute before pulling out a file. He opened it.

"Anthony Tyler Higgins. Mother, Bella, died when he was eight. Father, Arthur, was arrested when he was ten. Has one sister, Annabelle." He stopped, looked at Emma. Narrowed his eyes at her, nodded his head, and went back to reading his file. "Ran away from his foster family after two months. Arrested and sent to the Refuge for stealing clothes and..." Jack rolled his eyes, shook his head, and sighed. "Cigars. He is now married and lives about a block away." Jack handed her the file. She skimmed over it, wrote down the address, and pulled out her wallet. 

"How much do I owe you?" Annabelle asked.

"No charge," Jack said holding up his hand. 

Annabelle gave him a questioning look.

"I know Anthony pretty well, I'm sure he'll be happy to see you, and if he isn't,  I'm sure his husband will convince him to be," Jack said with a smile. "But, I'm sure... he'll be surprised." 

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it. I'll try not to say anything to him before you see him," Jack said. "And, good luck, you'll need it. Oh, and might I say, you two look an awful a lot alike." 

\-----

Annabelle knocked on the door in front of her. She heard footsteps approach the door, stop, a minute later, it swung open. 

"Well, I'll be damned. Emma Hill, or should I say, Annabelle Higgins. Only slightly surprised," The man said. He held out his hand. "Spot Conlon. Your brother's husband."

"Nice to meet you, Spot?" Annabelle questioning. "That's an odd name. I met a man last night named Racetrack."

"Oh, you did now?" Spot sighed. "Spot's not my real name, it's just a nickname that my friends gave me when I was a newsie. Anyway, would you like to come in?"

"Oh, yes, please, thank you," Annabelle walked into the apartment. 

"I'm sure you're here for Tony?" Spot asked checking his watch. "He should be home in around a half an hour. Do you want some coffee?"

"Sure."

"You can go sit in the livin' room, I'll bring in the coffee."

"Thank you."

Annabelle walked into the living room and looking around, they had an average size TV and their walls were covered in pictures, some of the two of them, some with one of them and some other people, some with a big group of boys. Annabelle came to a one where the two stood looking at each other and a rainbow stretched behind them (you know, like the picture from AKB's wedding but instead of kissing, their just looking at each other.) 

"That was our wedding day. We didn't invite anyone except for close friends. I'm sure you've met one, Jack, who helped you at NAH."

"How did you know that I went by NAH?"

"How else would've found us. Race didn't drop that card on accident. I think that he was hoping that you would try and find him," Spot sighed. "And I guess that his hopes have been fulfilled." 

"I didn't go looking for Racetrack, I went looking for Anthony," Annabelle said exasperated.

Spot just hummed in response. He brought the mug over to the couch and put them on the coffee table. Annabelle sat down.

"How 'bout you tell me something about you, you know since you're married to my brother and all, I would like to know a little about my brother-in-law," Annabelle said taking a sip of her coffee.

"I don't really remember most of my childhood, all I remember is that it wasn't very good. The first thing I remember was I was in Brooklyn and a Newsie named Smoke found me in an alleyway, starved and bruised. He adopted me into the brotherhood of Brooklyn Newsies. Smoke one day went missing and he's never been found. That means that they had to find a new leader since I was Smoke's second in command, I became the leader. I became known as the King of Brooklyn, most ruthless Newsie in all of New York. When I was around 16 was when I met Tony. I knew of a kid hanging around the Sheepshead Races, but I didn't think anything of it, just assuming that he was watching the races. I went one day to watch the races and see if the kid was selling or not. That's where I first saw Tony. He was sitting by the railing betting with one of my Newsies. I went up and we started a conversation. We became friends fast. We became best friends even. We would meet every Wednesday on the Brooklyn Bridge. I started developing a feeling for him fast. I guess he was too. We confessed to each other one night. Been together ever since. We kept our relationship a secret for about two years. I proposed to him on the Brooklyn Bridge on a Wednesday about five years ago, we've been married for almost four years, it'll be five next year."

"I keep hearing about the Sheepheads Races. Was Tony really always there?"

"Yeah, that's where Fox found him. That's how he got his nickname."

"Nickname?"

"Yeah, each Newsies has a nickname. There's only like four Newsies that don't have a nickname and that's being they don't want one," Spot explained. "Come here." 

Spot got up and walked towards one of the pictures of the big group, Annabelle followed.

"This is Jack, you met him, Elmer, Albert, JoJo, Boots, Mush, Kid Blink, Mike and Ike, the twins. This is Davey, but I call him Walking Mouth or Mouth for short. That's Les, Davey's brother. That's Katherine, Jack's wife. Specs, Romeo, Crutchie, he's a cripple and he hates his real name, Skittery, Buttons, Tommy Boy, Finch, Sniper, Me, and of course, Race. These are the Manhattan Newsies, now, it's not all of them, but it's most."

"So," Spot started after they sat back down on the couch. "Now that I told you about me, tell me about you."

"Um, okay. Since as long as I can remember, I was singing. My biological mom loved music so I was always surrounded by music, from the minute I was born. Tony and I composed a lot of music, we never wore them done, always thought that we'd remember them, probably forgotten most of them though. After mom died, dad blamed us and started to beat us and pass out after. I think music is the only thing that kept us alive. I never found out who reported our dad to the cops. But after Anthony and I were separated, I met Brian and Ashley Hill, they adopted me and I got a good education. I met this guy, but I don't think that he liked me though. Anyway, I went to NYU for a degree in business and started Hill Industries. I had my 25th birthday party on Friday. It was getting a little overwhelming so I went upstairs to my room. As I was going up, I thought about Tony and my mom and I starting singing our song. I heard a voice say the name I had spent years trying to hide. Then I heard more talking, so I pulled out my gun thinking that it was someone here there to kill me. Then the figure ran for the window and jumped.I expected him to come back the next day, so I was ready. I knocked the guy out, when he came to, he knew exactly who I was, he knew my past, then he told me all about Anthony. He told me his name, Racetrack, and when I tried to get more answers out of him, he looked at his watch, which surprised me since I tied his arms behind his back. Anyways, he looked at his watch and said he didn't want to worry about his husband and jumped out the window. He had dropped a NAH business card, and his words struck me and I thought that I should see Tony again. So, I went to NAH, told Jack that I wanted to see Anthony and he seemed so surprised. He gave me Tony's file anyway. And, now I'm here. In the living room of my brother and his husband."

"If I know Race, and I know him pretty well, he probably said a lot last night that caught you off guard."

"Yeah, he did."

"He made you think about your childhood and how you had forgotten who he was and that you should think more about the people that cared about you during your childhood," Spot took a sip of his coffee. "He made you think."

"Yeah, he did," Annabelle sighed. 

"Well," Spot checked his watch. "Tony should be home any minute. You'll be in for a treat."

Without another word, Spot got up, taking his mug and Annabelle's mug into the kitchen. While Spot was in the kitchen, Annabelle heard the door open and close.

"Hey, Tony," Spot said.

"Hey, Sean," A familiar voice. 

"You have a visitor."

"Is it Annabelle?"

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"I saw her at work this morning. Walked in the front, saw her, walked right back out," The voice explained. "Then later, Jack came into the office screaming at me cause I got caught. And, Jack isn't very good at keeping a secret."

"Good point," Spot said. "She's in the living room." 

"Thanks."

"Well, I'll be damned. Didn't think that you'd come looking for me," Race said leaning against the door frame. 

"Well, you talked a lot. You made me think about my past. I thought that it was finally time that we saw each other," Annabelle stated without turning. "But, I guess we saw each other last night and the night before that, didn't we?" 

"Yep. How long did it take you to realize?" Race asked taking a sip or his coffee. 

"Probably not until I was looking at the pictures on the wall," Annabelle gesturing to the wall. "If you were so hurt about me not going to see you, why haven't you try to?"

"Do you think that I haven't been keeping tabs on you? How do you think that I knew all that stuff last night?"

"Then why not have come and talked to me?" 

"Well, you changed your name, so I thought that you didn't want to see anyone from your past. Besides, I wasn't hurt that you hadn't come to see me, I was hurt that you had forgotten about me."

"I could never forget about you, Anthony," Annabelle said standing up to walk over to Race. 

"Don't call me Anthony, or Tony, or anything that is related to that name," Race said wincing at the name. "Spot is the only one that can do it, sorry, there are just bad memories associated with that name."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm Racetrack," Race said putting out his hand. "Racetrack Higgins."

"I'm Annabelle," Annabelle said grasping his hand. "Annabelle Higgins."

\-----

**Alternative exit for Race when talking to Annabelle**

**"You're an awful person," Annabelle snarled.**

**"Hey, I'm not the one pointing a gun at my twin," Race groaned. "Guess that's my cue to leave. Bye, Belle." Race said making finger guns at Annabelle before leaping out of the window.**


End file.
